Publisher to close doors within months; all staff let go; future software distribution to be handled by All Interactive Entertainment. [UPDATE]: 18 staff reportedly affected by closure.

THQ's Melbourne, Australia office will shut shop in the region within months, the firm announced today. All local staff have been dismissed following the news, with the publisher's future software distribution to be handled by third-party, All Interactive Entertainment (AIE).

"The evolution of our distribution model in the Asia Pacific region will allow us to increase our reach with a lower cost model," THQ’s executive vice president of global publishing Ian Curran confirmed in a statement. "AIE is a trusted business partner with whom we have worked with for many years as our distributor in New Zealand. We believe the company will benefit from AIE’s backing and comprehensive distribution network across Australia."

Robert Kingston, director of AIE acknowledged the appointment, saying "We are delighted to broaden our relationship with a top publisher such as THQ. We look forward to bringing THQ’s highly-anticipated new video game releases and existing game portfolio to our retail network in the territory."

The details come less than six months after Sega Australia closed its doors in similar fashion; moving the entirety of its business to distributor Five Star Games.

No other regions of operation are believed to be impacted as a result of THQ's office closure in Australia.

[UPDATE] In a statement to Gamasutra, a THQ spokesperson told the publication approximately 18 employees were impacted by THQ Australia's closure.

The statement also delves a little deeper into THQ's decision to shut down its Australian operations:

"In line with THQ's corporate strategy to focus on wholly-owned IP and move away from affiliate label programs, we have evaluated how best to take our more-focused product lineup to market in the territory."

"After a thorough analysis, a decision has been made to move from a direct sales model to a distributor model, which means that our Melbourne publishing office will be closing."

To be honest, its really very tough doing any kind of business in australia, government taxes are going high every year, prices of everything are going high so that directly result in employees salary increase. australia is going down, i will be moving from australia soon. its like what ever you earn in australia you will give 85% of it to australian government and half of goes to support junkies and their families.

The unendless pursue of profit by cutting costs is a duble edge sword. Closing operations and letting staff "go" is what is changing the gaming industry into a mass production of garbage. Most game are rarely innovative game-play wise. The power is on the distribution and not on creativity. EA anyone? How many innovative games from EA?

And it is all a lie when they say they are cutting costs, when the prices of games, especially in emerging markets are soaring, thus promoting piracy.

Is it me or the gaming industry is in bad shape in Australia? I keep seeing news of Australian publishers being shut down or having difficulties. But if you think about it, THQ Australia has been releasing major AAA "blockbusters" like Megamind : Ultimate Showdown and The Last Airbender so I can see why they are shutting down.

This has nothing to do with THQ australia poor performance, as the article said it has to do with "Costs". I live in Australia and unfortunately cost of living has skyrocketed beyond any country in the world, Australian cities are now all listed in the most expensive in the world. Maintaing a business here in now unsustainable. Current government has ruined the economy in the past 4 years and business has been flocking out, that's the sad reality. THQ is simply moving to more cost effective countries in the asia-pacific.

all these ads and commercials I see trying to get young people to take classes for video game design and programming fail to mention how job security in this field is total shit. The fact that your current development company puts out high quality games that sell very well at retail means absolutely nothing.

Damn. This really, really sucks. THQ have been so good to the local community (at least in the few years I've been kinda active), and it is atrue shame to see their efforts rewarded in such a fashion. Hell, if it weren't for their Capcom Preview Showcase event earlier this year, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have an Akuma shirt signed my Seth Killian hanging up in my wardrobe right now!
I wish everybody at the studio all the best in their future endeavours. Just really, really sucks...

The header scared the hell out of me. I thought, "NOOOOO!! Not Vigil Games!! I love Darksiders." Then I Googled the named and read this company worked on... well, nothing so I'm not too upset over this announcement.

@PrpleTrtleBuBum@cdog21 I sympathize with all the people these situations affect. Imagine going to your game's release party where everyone is proud and excited over the high review scores the game received, only to get a pink slip 2 weeks later while you were taking your month off in between projects.